Pakistan, China to launch three new projects

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and China have decided to launch three new corridors besides the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

These include the China-Pakistan Green Corridor (CPGC), which will focus on agricultural environment, food security and green development, the China-Pakistan Health Corridor (CPHC), which will help Pakistan get efficiency in the medical field, and the China-Pakistan Digital Corridor (CPDC), which will boost Pakistan’s IT industry. This was announced by Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moinul Haq, while talking to the China Economic Net (CEN) in Beijing.

Ambassador Haque said Pakistan has a rich repertoire of talent and human resources in different fields of science and technology and IT-based science and technology have become very important for Pakistan. “We would be an important source of help for China in terms of software development. So, we are working together to set up training centres in Pakistan for developing software in different fields of IT,” he said. The envoy attached great significance to the new projects that are being launched with great enthusiasm.

The sources have indicated here that the formal launching of the projects could take place during the next month’s visit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to China. He has been invited by Chinese President Xi Jinping. The schedule and relevant details for the trip are being worked out through diplomatic channels on a priority basis, the sources said. The new corridors would become sources of strengthening Pakistan-China ties and will provide a new unshakable bond of the proximity of the two nations, the sources said.

Former Additional Director General FIA and Founder of Digital Pakistan Ammar Jaffri has said that emerging technologies have now become a lifeline for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) & targets. “We are aiming to organise an international conference on artificial intelligence (AI) on 23rd March 2023 in which local and foreign enterprises will participate and we would take strategic decisions to engage the Government of Pakistan, and international organisations in our mega projects”, he mentioned.

Jaffri said that AI in areas of cyber security, SDGs and emerging technologies is a much-needed zone where Pakistan has to work with China while Pakistan has a young population advantage in the region. The sources reminded the scope of Pakistan-China friendship and cooperation would cater to the fields that help Pakistan to overcome its economic complexities and start moving on the path of fiscal self-sufficiency.